Manhattan
'''Manhattan '''is a major Alliance world in the Altair System, with a population of 680 million people. It is populated mostly by descendants from North America, particularly the United States' East Coast and Midwest regions. The planet's capital and largest city is Albany City. Geography Manhattan is 69% covered in oceans and is slightly larger than Terra. The largest continent is the continent of Brooklyn, mostly in Manhattan's southern hemisphere, stretching from near its south pole to slightly north of its equator. North of Brooklyn is the Holland Straits, the location of the New Holland Islands and Albany City at some of the Straits' narrowest points, and north of that are the three continents of Bronx, Queens and Jersey, all of which combined are only a little more than half of Brooklyn's total landmass. The seas between these three continents are shallow and full of archipelagos. To the slight southwest of the western entrance to the Straits is Manhattan's largest subcontinental island, known as Staten, separated from Brooklyn by about fifty miles of open water with the rocky, uninhabited Verrazzano Islands in between. To the far northeast of the main landmasses, on the opposite side of the planet and near the polar ice cap, is the cold subcontinental island of Hudson, and slightly south of it is the large island of New Vermont, which is roughly connected to Hudson by the Cod Islands archipelago. Underneath the north polar ice cap is a large landmass nearly the size of Queens named Stuyvesant, which is regarded as a fifth continent. Government Federal Government of Manhattan Manhattan is governed by a federation of seventy-five states known as the Federal Government of Manhattan, headquartered on Federal Island in Albany City. The Federal Government owns the island, which is considered independent from any of the planet's states. The federal government has three branches - legislative, executive, and judiciary. Modeled upon the governments of the North American, Oceanian and African settlers who arrived here, the legislative branch is the Federal Assembly of Manhattan, comprised of two chambers - the House of Delegates, and the House of the Senate. The House of Delegates has one thousand members apportioned evenly after every census, which occurs every five years, between all seventy-five states, with each state entitled to a minimum of two delegates, with at least one delegate required to be elected at large. The Manhattan Federal Board of Elections draws districts for the states, and may upon the request of the state design districts to create multi-member districts rather than winner-take-all. At-large delegates, at minimum one per state, must be elected winner-take-all, although most states use Instant Runoff Voting. In the event of the death of a delegate, the delegate's home state will select a replacement until a special election can be held pursuant to state law. The House of Delegates is powerful, controlling all legislative functions including budget, planetary defense, and commercial law. The various parties that form, almost always by coalition, the majority of the House selects a Majority House Leader and a Majority Floor Leader, with minority parties doing the same, and a non-partisan Speaker is appointed to steer the House. By law, the Speaker must be chosen by two-thirds majority. The House of the Senate is weak, able only to ratify or reject legislation from the lower House while holding the power to reject or approve executive appointments, such as federal Department officials and judges. Each state is entitled to one Senator, directly elected for a term of ten years. Senators are required by law to be non-partisan and elected via IRV, although it is typically known what party Senators prefer. In the event of the death of a Senator, the Governor of Manhattan will select a replacement until a special election can be held pursuant to state law. The Governor of Manhattan is the executive who controls the executive branch of the Federal Government. His appointments run all of the major Departments, with the title of Minister. The Governor is directly elected by popular ballot, needing to obtain a planetary majority via IRV. Gubernatorial elections are in two stages over two months - a first round, which narrows the potential field to three candidates, and a second round, which serves as the runoff, to be held no more than a month later. Once a Governor has been elected, he shall nominate three candidates to serve as his Vice Governor, from whom one is then chosen by a simple majority of the states (in other words, thirty-eight states must choose the same candidate). The Governor is also responsible for serving as Commander-in-Chief of Manhattan's planetary defenses, which are historically fairly powerful despite lack of many orbital vessels, and nominates appointments to the Supreme Court of Manhattan, which has fifteen members who serve fifteen-year terms, and the District and Appeals Courts of Manhattan, the next two tiers of federal courts, each of which has nine members who serve eight-year terms. The Governor is limited to three lifetime four-year terms, only two of which may be served consecutively. Only two Governors have ever returned from retirement to serve more than two terms. State Government Each of Manhattan's seventy-five states has strong self-government, in the North American tradition. Though states initially followed a model similar to the American one, most states have strong leeway on how to organize themselves provided they appoint a "Lieutenant Governor" who serves as the executive of the state. Many states have a "strong executive" system roughly modeled on the federal one, with a Lieutenant Governor in charge of an empowered executive branch and a complimentary legislature. Others have a "strong legislative" system where the Lieutenant Governor is a figurehead and the party leader in the legislature effectively runs the state. Strong legislative states almost always have parliamentary state constitutions where the Lieutenant Governor is powerless and the legislative majority leader forms the government. Either system is acceptable under the Planetary Constitution of Manhattan. All states have their own local security forces and set "home budgets," as well as have local courts organized by state law to enforce local law. One of the only powers states do not have is over interstate commerce and over many electoral laws - constituent boundaries and voter access, for example, are governed by federal law. States may choose, however, whether to institute parliamentary or strong executive systems, whether to use IRV for local elections, and how often to hold elections and whether to enforce term limits. Many states are unicameral for simplicity. Some states, particularly ones with large land area, also have smaller sub-governmental areas known as "counties." Federal law prohibits counties being used for state Senates or similar chambers as a violation of the principle of "one man, one vote." Many counties have local governments more responsive to local constituent concerns. Category:Planets Category:Humans Category:League of Planets Adventure